Since its acquisition by National Semiconductor last November, x86 microprocessor maker Cyrix has refined its market position.
The company has grown away from merely trying to compete with Intel, and has adopted National's system-on-a-chip strategy of integrating components on a miniature level.
Dick Sanquini, senior vice-president of National, said the company wanted to dominate the markets for low-end desktops and mobile PCs, and information-access devices.
Cyrix products to be released in the next year will include clock speeds of up to 333 MHz for its MediaGX range, which will cost less than Intel's Pentium chips. These are aimed at the sub-US$1,000 PC market, which Mr Sanquini calls the biggest threat and the biggest opportunity for the semiconductor industry.
He said the threat was to Intel, while the opportunity was for other chip-makers.
The sub-$1,000 PC was also changing consumer fixation on higher clock speeds.
'We want to effectively redirect consumer focus away from 'pure megahertz' and towards system performance and end-user experience,' Mr Sanquini said.